Bob Frantz: Baseball writers did the right thing by denying cheaters

FILE - In this July 28, 2006, file photo, San Francisco Giants' Barry Bonds waits on the dugout steps to bat in the eighth inning with bases loaded against the Pittsburgh Pirates during a baseball game in Pittsburgh. With the cloud of steroids shrouding many candidacies, baseball writers may fail for the only the second time in more than four decades to elect anyone to the Hall. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

But make no mistake: Wednesday was truly Judgment Day for baseball's liars, cheaters and other assorted steroid-using scoundrels.

Thankfully, the ol' Hanging Judge, otherwise known as the Baseball Writers Association of America, was at the bench.

Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. And more guilty.

OK, the writers weren't actually being asked to declare the guilt or innocence of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro and the holdovers from the steroid era who have languished on the Hall of Fame ballot for several years, but by refusing to invite them to Cooperstown, their gavel was heard loud and clear through the baseball ages.

That the writers elected no one to the Hall for the eighth time in history, and the first time since 1996, was only a small part of the story. That they took a stand for integrity and honest achievement means everything.

Yesterday, baseball voted for Roger Maris and Babe Ruth. It voted for Hank Aaron and Willie Mays. It voted for Sandy Koufax and Tom Seaver.

That's right. What the BBWA did by excluding the likes of Bonds, Sosa, Clemens and Palmeiro from the hallowed Hall where their plaques would undoubtedly have been displayed this summer if they hadn't used performance-enhancing drugs, was to reclaim history for the greatest players the game has ever known, whose records and accomplishments were surpassed and diminished by these modern-day products of advanced chemistry ... and who deserved better.

Bonds, whose name fraudulently sits atop the home run record lists for a single season and for a career, received 36 percent of the votes cast by the BBWA, less than half of the 75 percent required for induction to the Hall.

Sosa, whose single-season home run chase in 1998 with fellow steroid-user Mark McGwire ended with both men shattering Maris' record, received just 12.5 percent of the vote.

Palmeiro, who tested positive for PED use near the end of his career, sits 12th on the all-time home run list, ahead of the likes of Reggie Jackson, Mike Schmidt and Mickey Mantle. He got 8.8 percent of the vote -- probably more than he deserved.

Clemens has a record seven Cy Young awards hanging in his home, but his image will not hang in Cooperstown. At least not now. Only 37 percent of the writers chose to ignore his connections to PED use and check the box next to his name.

What the writers have done by keeping the doors locked as these all-time historic players are banging on it from the outside, is precisely what needed to be done. Being a first-ballot Hall of Famer is, whether you agree with it or not, a special badge of honor.

For unwritten reasons, history seems to regard first-balloters as the very best of the very best. By denying the steroid cheaters that unofficial honor, they are clearly punishing them for their decisions to taint the history of the game.

The true test of the voters' resolve, however, will come in future votes.

Will Bonds and Clemens, arguably the best hitter and pitcher of their generations, respectively, be welcomed to the club next year? How about in 2015?

Would Sosa, who has more 60-plus home run seasons on his résumé than anyone who ever lived, finally get an invitation in 2020? Or have the doors been forever sealed on the most infamous players of the Steroid Era?

Let's hope so.

If the voters have decided the crimes committed, not just against the modern competition Bonds, et al, cheated while they played, but against the all-time greats, were serious enough to deny them admission for one year, then they must be denied it for good.

Baseball has forever been tarnished by the steroid scandals, and those who benefitted from them the most should not have their own tarnish removed by the mere passage of time. Their records, without asterisk, will stand for eternity. Future generations of baseball fans must learn that those records were earned by men undeserving of the ultimate honor of induction, because the records themselves were earned without honor.

Naturally, the decision to bar the door on some of the sport's most accomplished performers is not without controversy. Those writers who did cast votes for the chem-lab creations have argued their heroes had Hall of Famer careers before they began using illegal drugs, and are therefore worthy of the Hall.

It's an argument completely devoid of reason.

If a 48-year-old man lives the first 46 years of his life without breaking the law, then goes on a four-year burglary spree, he will forever be known as a burglar. Moreover, the judge who decides his fate isn't going to set him free because he waited until later in life to start stealing.

Put another way by a sportswriter friend during a radio interview with me last season, a student who answers correctly the first 99 questions of a final exam, but then cheats to find the 100th answer, doesn't get an A- because he only cheated on the last part. He gets an F because he cheated. Period.

Congratulations, BBWA. You stood up for integrity. Let's hope you remain standing for years to come.

Bob Frantz hosts "The Bob Frantz Show" on WTAM-AM 1100 from 7 p.m. to midnight weeknights, and following Cavaliers, Indians and Browns games.